How to Think in a Foreign Way.

Expressing Yourself: What Is The Best Way For Learning English, Chinese, Or Any Other Foreign Language?

Have you ever had the frustrating experience of wanting to express your thoughts in English but are not able to?
After learning from professional teachers, you often find yourself recognizing words and sentences. However, why is it that you still cannot freely express yourself in spoken foreign language in your day-to-day life?

This is because it is one thing to recognize words and sentences, and another thing to fully understand what they mean.
But knowing how to use words and sentences, and also being able to express yourself freely, this is another thing altogether!
Languages are the mediums of thinking.
And different ways of thinking generate different languages.
By learning a new language, we are able to see the world from a different perspective.

So how can we practice so that we are able to express ourselves the way foreigners do?
Is it true that our only options are studying abroad or finding a foreign language tutor?
We don't think so. And this is why we have created this platform.
To help you go through your memories and then imitate the way foreigners think.
Simply trying the two techniques below will improve your ability to express yourself in a foreign language.

Echo Mode:
Click one of the articles and then click "Challenge". Choose "Echo Mode" and press the "Play" button
After you have listened to a sentence you need to arrange the words in the correct order.
You must not arrange the words while you are listening to them.
You must let the words echo in your mind after they have stopped playing, and then after this you can start arranging the words.
This is Echo Mode.

Thinking Mode:
After you have finished watching a video, choose "Thinking Mode" and click on the words to make a sentence directly.
Note: when you arrive at this step, be aware that the translation is only a reference.
Please try to recall what happened in the video and what each character was thinking.
Then express what they wanted to say directly using a foreign language.
It's important to clearly understand what they are thinking so that you can see how they organize their thoughts.
This is Thinking Mode.

When using Thinking Mode, most beginners end up choosing a video with a simple day-to-day conversation thinking that it'll fairly be easy. However, they often struggle to arrange the words into correct sentences.
This reflects that many people don't have a good understanding of sentence structure, grammar, using prepositions, or using vocabulary.
And this platform aims to help with this.

If a beginner chooses a more challenging article but cannot recognize many of the words then he/she will not be able to form sentences correctly.
And beginners who do this might even try to directly memorize whole sentences.
Some people think that memorizing whole sentences is better for expanding your vocabulary than memorizing words one by one.
We recommend reading and reviewing articles a few times each.
And after you encounter vocabulary words several times you will absorb and remember them naturally.
You can also pause and reflect upon how many times you have seen a particular word before.
You can strengthen the impression a word has in your mind by counting how many times you have seen it before. You can learn words without directly memorizing them.
This way, you can also avoid wasting time focusing on words that don't appear very often.

Actually, this is how we recommend beginners approach articles written in foreign languages.
It is better to relax and get a basic understanding through encountering words again and again rather than spending a long time painstakingly memorizing each word.
You will discover that it's actually quite easy, and effective, to learn words this way.
And most importantly, this will help you to read foreign articles much more easily.

Also, when learning English, it's important that you are constantly being challenged, and not to let yourself get too comfortable. Your study material needs to be progressively challenging.
And always adjust the way that you practice based on your own requirements and natural strengths.
Furthermore, we also encourage you to write an article about how to learn foreign languages and publish it online; making a record of your experiences and ideas to benefit other learners.
When you encounter sentences or articles that you especially like, please feel free to pass them on to other beginners who you think might be interested.
If you ever think of any other ways to practice foreign languages or want to add or improve any functions here, please let us know!

This is a free platform and our goal is for more people to learn English.
The main way that people discover our platform is actually from hearing about us through their friends.
So if you enjoy using this platform and feel that it is an effective way to learn, please consider sharing some articles with your friends.
And help us to grow the community here. Thank you very much!

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If you are a new user here, choose an easy article to get started and you'll quickly understand this game~~

Note: The translator of this article is a Kiwi from Christchurch, New Zealand, and is the creator of this card game (link to Taiwan website). Check it out!